Portable hand-held planers are well known in the industry. These devices usually encompass a housing in which is located an electric motor and a cylindrical rotatable planing tool. Appropriate transmission means is supplied between the motor and the tool. The planer is usually held in a manner when operated whereby the cylindrical tool rotates on a horizontal axis and numerous passes against a work piece are made until the wooden work piece or a portion thereof has been planed away or rabbeting has been accomplished. The major portion of the planing tool is positioned in the housing. A rectangularly shaped opening is usually supplied at the bottom of the planer and a portion of the planing tool projects therefrom to impinge on a work piece.
As it is desirable, especially when attempting to accomplish rabbeting, to control the depth to which the planer may be permitted to go, a depth gauge is provided. The prior art is replete with teachings as to how this may be accomplished. One way is to provide a shoe which makes contact with an unplaned portion of the work piece being planed so that the depth to be achieved is a relationship between the unplaned portion and the planed portion. The shoe prevents further downward movement of the planer. By attaching or integrating the shoe to an upstanding portion and by providing means for adjustably and selectively clamping this upstanding portion at a selected desirable point a depth gauge is thereby provided.
As the planing tool operates at extremely high revolutions per minute and as the planing tool has extremely sharp cutting surfaces, it has been found desirable to prevent easy or accidental access to the planing tool from the side of the planer having the depth gauge.
To accomplish this salutary end, some portable planers are fitted with a metal shield alongside one side of the planer proximate the planing tool. The shield is designed to extend for a short distance between the bottom of the housing for approximately the same dimension as the planing tool. Such a shield poses a problem, for as the planer cuts the work piece to a predetermined level, provision must be made to get the shield out of the way but not so much that the planing tool is accessible from the side. Consequently, some shields have been hingedly mounted so that as the planer descends the shield pivots arcuately upwardly and out of the way. This is permissible when there are no side obstructions in an odd shaped work piece, but can pose a problem on occasion.
It is also accepted practice to provide a guide for controlling the width of a cut produced by a planer. In correct parlance this would be known as a rabbet. A guide of an appropriate type would be a fence assembly. Such an assembly is positioned on the side of the planer opposite to the side carrying the depth gauge and guard mechanism. Such an assembly consists generally of an elongated flat plate which appears to depend downwardly from the housing of the planer and is adjustably movable underneath the housing and planing tool. In use the work piece has a side surface in abutment with the flat plate.
It will be appreciated from the foregoing that the prior art portable hand-held planers are provided with three indispensable elements, namely, depth gauge, guard means and fence assembly for controlling the width of a cut.